Vehicles may be equipped with sensors that facilitate perceiving other vehicles, obstacles, pedestrians, and additional aspects of a surrounding environment. For example, a vehicle may be equipped with a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor that uses light to scan the surrounding environment, while logic associated with the LIDAR analyzes acquired data to detect a presence of objects and other features of the surrounding environment. In further examples, additional/alternative sensors such as cameras may be implemented to acquire information about the surrounding environment from which a system derives awareness about aspects of the surrounding environment. This sensor data can be useful in various circumstances for improving perceptions of the surrounding environment so that systems such as autonomous driving systems can perceive the noted aspects and accurately plan and navigate accordingly.
In general, the further awareness is developed by the vehicle about a surrounding environment, the better a driver can be supplemented with information to assist in driving and/or the better an autonomous system can control the vehicle to avoid hazards. However, the sensor data is generally limited to direct observations. That is, the sensor data cannot provide information about aspects of the surrounding environment that are not directly observed. As such, the vehicle may be unaware of various latent aspects of the environment thereby increasing risks in relation to those aspects.
Moreover, occurrences of events within roadways that block lanes or otherwise cause a lane to become impassable represent difficulties when traveling along a road. These lane obstructions result in delays and/or potentially hazardous circumstances to navigate. However, existing approaches to identifying such occurrences generally rely on manual reporting and/or direct observations of the obstructions by a vehicle, which can be complicated by obstructed views and other limitations. Consequently, present approaches fail to detect roadway obstructions or provide sufficient notice about the obstructions thereby increasing risks and the ability to safely navigate the obstructions.